The last treatment: Oxalic Acid

It has been a long and tedious fall treatment, but I was able to get a good morning of weather and my mite treatments were finishing on the Friday and the Saturday. Saturday I took my Apivar strips out of two home hives and treated them with 50 cc of sugar syrup + oxalic acid by dripping the oxalic acid directly on the bees.

Oxalic acid and sugar syrup (50cc)

 The bellow picture shows a bee cluster. They are clearly more concentrated in the center of the box. You can also see two Apivar strips. They require 42 days in the brood box to work to their full potential. Apivar is a slow release insecticide to kill mites which are on the bees and in the cells.

Bee cluster: Apivar strips ready to be removed.

 This is actually a poor picture of my hives at my parents farm. The bees were bringing in some pollen. There were also some capped brood in these hives. They also received the acid treatment.

Old style landing board and new style.

The one hive seemed to have a fair bit of k-wing. This is the hive which I caught as a swarm. Their queen is old (age unknown actually). The bees also seem to be fairly aggressive. In the spring time I intend to replace this queen.

Snow! What the heck??

Yes, we have some overnight flurries tonight. Which is quite weird but not uncommon for south western Ontario.

Christmas much?

Hand-packed snow man

I was checking the long term forecast and it was looking pretty bleak. Luckily my treatments all end on Saturday. So I will remove my formic acid pad from my weaker hive and add on a hive top feeder to see if they will take some feed in. My two other hives which I have at my home property have some 42 day old Apivar strips in.

Long term grim forecast

I will be removing my various mite treatments and then I intend to do an Oxalic Acid treatment (Trickle Method). This is recommended by the ministry of agriculture in the fall when there is the least amount of brood rearing; typically after a formic acid treatment. It involves mixing 35g of Oxalic Acid dihydrate crystals per 1L of 50% syrup. Then using a syringe, apply 50mL onto the cluster of bees. In a two box colony, apply 25mL on each box. It is supposed to be done on a cool day where the majority of the bees would be in the box.